After CNA Training: The Truth About Being a CNA

CNA Training

No matter where you work after CNA training, there are going to be certain truths that are hard impossible to get around. While at times these truths can be bitter, annoying, and even frustrating, they all have one thing in common: when we look back on them, days or even years later, we still have to laugh.

While you may not find humor in certain circumstances right now, you’ll eventually come to realize these crazy moments are what make CNA training, and being a CNA, worth every second.

Humorous Truths After CNA Training

So, what truths have you already experienced or are looking forward to after CNA training?

The number of CNAs working any particular shift will have a direct impact on the amount of call lights that go off after CNA training. The fewer CNAs there are (and the more swamped,) the more likely that every call light will beep at one point or another during the workday.

The sickest patients, who need the most attention, will be located furthest from the nurse and CNA station. And, if possible, they will be placed as far apart as possible from each other.

Your patients will always request to lie down after you spend thirty minutes changing and making all the beds on the hall.

You can never quite settle down and breathe easy when the hall is too quiet- even if all the patients are supposed to be sleeping. Investigating abnormal quietness is key; you never know what is going on behind a patient’s door. I once had a lovely elderly Alzheimer’s patient lock herself and her roommate into her room using a clothes hanger. Everything was quiet as a mouse until I approached the door for my two hour checks and was told I was a Nazi.

After CNA training, you may find you are invisible the majority of the time. That is, until someone needs something or you make a mistake.

You’re going to walk out at the end of the shift with items like trash bags, lotions, and gloves in your scrub pockets, simply because you’re too tired to notice they are there. While this is understandable, it’s still stealing, so bring them back.

Other CNAs will be pulled onto your unit only during shifts that are unusually quiet. Because of this, they’ll come to believe you work on the easiest hall or floor and that you never put in the hard work they do every single day.

You’re always going to remember that one thing you forgot to do when you clock out after CNA training.

The one time you decide to take care of a patient by yourself without telling anyone where you are going is the one time your patient will decide to paint the walls with his BM. Don’t ask me why. It just happens that way.

CNA Training Humor

While life after CNA training may be serious and life changing, that doesn’t mean it can’t be humorous at times. Learn to laugh at those moments you’d rather cry about and experience what it is truly like to be a CNA after CNA training.